News

Briar Goldwyn PhD reflections on housing risk reduction in Puerto Rico

Anonymous — Tue, 03 May 2022 21:36:22 +0000

Briar Goldwyn PhD reflections on housing risk reduction in Puerto Rico Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/03/2022 - 15:36

(Full article with author acknowledgements can be found here)

Briar Goldwyn is a fourth-year PhD student researching multi-hazard housing safety and disaster risk reduction in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Construction and Engineering Management program at CU Boulder.

She recently returned from fieldwork in Puerto Rico and has been active there for years through projects that center on the needs, concerns, and real-world challenges of Puerto Rican builders and homeowners.

Goldwyn’s latest project with the National Science Foundation focuses on informal housing construction in Puerto Rico, in which owners and builders are either unable or unwilling to enter formal construction processes. Her latest project focuses on how those dynamics impact the island during disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. This project brings together collaborators from across campus, including professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel in Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering and Matthew Koschmann in Communication. In addition, Goldwyn has had multiple Puerto Rican students, and organizations, assisting with the project.

Most of the previous work in this area has been done from a post-disaster reconnaissance perspective, which shows damage and reveals structural vulnerabilities. Goldwyn is instead trying to investigate the perspectives of those constructing and occupying these homes to better understand their perceptions of housing safety and disaster risk ahead of time.

We asked her about the real-world applications of her research, why she is passionate about it and where the work may go in the future.

Question: What is the project you were recently working on in Puerto Rico and how did you get involved with it?
Answer: Since the start of my PhD, I have been focused on understanding the housing safety perceptions of those involved in construction across Puerto Rico and how those perceptions do and do not align with actual engineering assessments of housing safety in hurricanes and earthquakes. For this project, I interviewed and surveyed over 400 builders, homeowners, hardware store employees, and non-governmental organization staff to understand their perceptions of the housing design and construction practices that are unsafe in future hazards – and the reasons that lead to these unsafe practices. Then, I worked with structural engineering colleagues to compare those perceptions with current wind and seismic engineering assessments to identify misalignments between the two. We took the resulting information and are now working with local experts to identify a few areas for technical construction capacity-building in response to what we found.

Q: Can you explain what you mean by technical construction capacity-building?
A: One way we are trying to support technical construction capacity-building in the project is by piloting a short educational module for 20 people in existing construction training programs specifically around hurricane mitigation for wood housing. The feedback from that program was positive, and now there are several more practical steps that I plan to take this summer to be able to support more community-based and grassroots organizations working in this space to build skills and awareness – or put another way, capacity.

Q: Did you work with any groups on the island for this project?
A: Yes, I piloted that technical construction capacity-building approach alongside two locally based organizations in Puerto Rico. We trained the organizations on methods of choosing and installing hurricane straps to avoid catastrophic and costly structural failures. Additionally, Cole Velasquez, an undergraduate student, has been helping me with this project for the past year through the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship program in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Briar Goldwyn and Cole Velasquez in Puerto Rico

Q: Was this a research question or area you were interested in before joining the project?
A: I always knew that I wanted to work on ensuring that infrastructure is safe and equitable, especially in regions prone to natural hazards. As I was applying to this PhD program in fall 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria were devastating Puerto Rico, and I ended up writing my application about studying the impacts of different forms of housing aid after the hurricanes. But when I arrived in Puerto Rico in June 2019 for my first fieldwork trip, I realized that research topic would not be viable because of the realities of limited international aid and inaccessible federal aid. That summer, so many amazing people welcomed me into their homes and talked to me about their experiences with the hurricanes, their worries about their housing safety, and the policies that tied everything together. All of which inform and intersect with my research today.

I also just finished an internship funded by the National Science Foundation with InterAction, which is a convening organization for non-governmental organizations working towards global change. With them, I researched coverage of humanitarian shelter and settlements assistance, and it was a great experience because I got to be looped into big-picture conversations on advocacy and change within humanitarian aid and development.

Q: Where will the research go from here?
A: Puerto Rico's infrastructure is an incredibly challenging topic that is wrapped up in its colonial history. School infrastructure, for example, is a major concern there because – despite this critical public infrastructure being constructed formally – most of it is still vulnerable to the impacts of earthquakes and hurricanes. One school in Guánica, Puerto Rico, was destroyed in the 2019-20 earthquakes, and many other schools still possess the same structural vulnerabilities that led to that particular collapse. Moreover, Puerto Rico's housing stock is aging and in need of repair and reconstruction to be able to withstand future shocks and stresses from hazards. Many individuals I have spoken with have been really concerned with the lack of construction labor trained to build housing that is safe during hurricanes and earthquakes.

So there are many aspects that could be studied, and I think future work should start with discussions with local groups to understand their infrastructure-related research priorities and then work with them to design a project to address those topics.

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Caleb Cord reflects on PhD with USAID funded Sustainable WASH Systems Paternship

Anonymous — Tue, 03 May 2022 21:32:46 +0000

Caleb Cord reflects on PhD with USAID funded Sustainable WASH Systems Paternship Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/03/2022 - 15:32

Caleb Cord was interviewed to reflect on his work with our USAID-funded Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership and his recent paper on payment for professional water services in Uganda with partner Whave Solutions.

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Ilham Siddiq receives USAID/H4H Fellowship

Anonymous — Tue, 03 May 2022 21:29:14 +0000

Ilham Siddiq receives USAID/H4H Fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/03/2022 - 15:29

A survivor of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Ilham Siddiq received the 2022 USAID/Habitat for Humanity Fellowship. Read more about Ilham here: /ceae/2022/05/02/civil-engineering-student-tsunami-survivor-awarded-fellowship-study-disaster-recovery

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GPO (Javernick-Will and alumni Poleacovschi) awarded best paper award for 2021 by ASCE's Journal of Management in Engineering

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 20:21:53 +0000

GPO (Javernick-Will and alumni Poleacovschi) awarded best paper award for 2021 by ASCE's Journal of Management in Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/16/2021 - 14:21

ASCE's Journal of Management in Engineering awarded the 2021 Best Paper Award for Gendered Knowledge Accessibility: Evaluating the Role of Gender in Knowledge Seeking among Engineers in the US to Cristina Poleacovschi, Amy Javernick-Will, Sheng (Monica) Wang, and Tony Tong.

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GPO PhD student & Alumni awarded ASCE New Faces of Civil Engineering (Professional) Award

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 20:37:38 +0000

GPO PhD student & Alumni awarded ASCE New Faces of Civil Engineering (Professional) Award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/15/2021 - 14:37

Kimberly Pugel and Aaron Opdyke were awarded ASCE's 2021 New Faces of Civil Engineering - Professional Edition!

Read their stories and watch their videos here: https://www.asce.org/new-faces-professional/

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Mortenson Center in Global Engineering Gift

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Sep 2020 20:35:21 +0000

Mortenson Center in Global Engineering Gift Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/01/2020 - 14:35

News article highlights a year of growth for MCGE and a new gift

/engineering/2020/08/20/new-gift-caps-growth-year-mortenson-center-global-engineering

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DRIP (Drought Resilience Impact Platform) selected for the top 100 in MacArthur Foundations's 100 & Change

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 21:46:27 +0000

DRIP (Drought Resilience Impact Platform) selected for the top 100 in MacArthur Foundations's 100 & Change Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/28/2020 - 15:46

The Drought Resilience Impact Platform will end Horn of Africa drought emergencies through monitoring, evidence-based decisions, and coordinated actions to ensure water is always available.

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Javernick-Will Guest Editing Special Issue, "Sheltering and Housing Displaced Populations" for the journal Sustainability with Opdyke

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:37:00 +0000

Javernick-Will Guest Editing Special Issue, "Sheltering and Housing Displaced Populations" for the journal Sustainability with Opdyke Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/27/2019 - 09:37

I am excited to be guest editing, together with Dr. Aaron Opdyke (University of Sydney) a Special Issue for the journal Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050, IF 2.592), entitled "Sheltering and Housing Displaced Populations".

This Special Issue seeks contributions focusing on sheltering and housing in post-disaster settlements. We seek contributions that bridge the humanitarian–development nexus, from pre-disaster resiliency to emergency and temporary shelter, to the long-term development of sustainable housing and settlements. We are interested in contributions which unpack issues of sheltering and housing accessibility, affordability, safety, sustainability, and the associated environmental, social, and babyֱ��app issues facing displaced populations. We also seek manuscripts which analyze the intersection of built infrastructure systems in post-disaster settlements, such as water, sanitation, power, drainage, and transportation. Contextually, we welcome manuscripts that address response to all types of disasters and conflict.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will be subject to a rigorous peer-review process with the aim of the rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications. For further reading, please follow the link to the Special Issue Website at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/Sheltering_Housing_Displaced_Populations

The submission deadline is 31 May 2020. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline. Submitted papers should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. We also encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office in advance (sustainability@mdpi.com).

Sustainability is fully open access. Open access (unlimited and free access by readers) increases publicity and promotes more frequent citations, as indicated by several studies. Open access is supported by the authors and their institutes. Article Processing Charges of CHF 1700 (APC) apply to accepted papers. You may be entitled to a discount if you have previously received a discount code or if your institute is participating in the MDPI Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), for more information see: http://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap.

For further details on the submission process, please see the instructions for authors at the journal website (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions).

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